My earlier essay, At the Well in a Valley of Conflict, does not end in the first century, nor with my brief stumbling into that land while serving in the Navy. There remains a people today from whom we can learn much.
The Samaritans did not disappear into history as many assume. They remain there even today, living on Mount Gerizim above the ancient valley of Shechem, in the same place where Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well.
Their numbers today are very small – only about a thousand people in the world. Yet their presence stretches back more than twenty-five centuries. They trace their lineage to the ancient tribes of Israel and were able to remain in the land when the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians and the southern kingdom of Judah was exiled into Babylon. While empires rose and fell – Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, and modern states this small remnant endured, not by conquering, but by remaining faithful to the Scriptures and to the land where God settled them.
Their faith is ancient and simple. They worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They keep the Torah of Moses. Each year they gather on Mount Gerizim to celebrate the Passover sacrifice in a way that most closely resembles how it was observed in the time of Jesus. In many ways they are a living archaeological presence in a world that has seen enormous change.
In a world constantly reshaped by war and conquest, the Samaritans have preserved a way of life that reaches back to the earliest pages of Scripture. What may be most remarkable, however, is how they have survived.
For centuries the Samaritans have lived among larger and often competing peoples. Their neighbors today are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. The political powers governing the region have changed repeatedly. Borders have shifted, wars have come and gone, and the land around them has often been marked by tension and violence. Yet the Samaritans continue to live quietly among them all.
Today their life contains a striking symbol of this reality. Many Samaritans carry two identity cards—one issued by Israel and one issued by the Palestinian Authority. This paradox reflects a people living between two political systems, belonging fully to neither, yet continuing their lives without compromise.
They interact with both societies yet fully belong to neither. Their survival has depended not on choosing sides, but on preserving something deeper than politics: their faith, their community, and their ancient way of life. In a region where identity is often defined by loyalties declared and conflicts inherited; the Samaritans quietly inhabit the space in between.
They do not seek power.
They do not wage wars to defend their identity.
They do not allow the conflicts around them to define who they are.
Instead, they continue to worship God as their fathers did.
This quiet endurance casts an interesting light on another moment in the Gospels. When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, He chose a member of this very community to illustrate what it means to be a true neighbor. In the story, the Samaritan – the outsider – stops, shows mercy, and cares for the wounded man.
Two thousand years later the descendants of that same people still live in the hills of Samaria. In a land that continues to experience division and conflict, their existence has become something like a living parable.
They remain who they are without hatred and without surrender. They live among peoples who disagree with them religiously and politically, yet they continue to interact with all. They preserve their traditions without withdrawing from the world around them.
There is something deeply instructive in this quiet persistence.
The valley of Shechem has seen centuries of struggle. Yet on the slopes above that valley a small community continues to gather each year to worship the God of their fathers.
Sometimes faithfulness is not loud.
Sometimes survival is not dramatic.
Sometimes it is simply the quiet decision to remain faithful to God while living peacefully among one’s neighbors.
Perhaps that is why the parable of the Good Samaritan still speaks so powerfully today.
Because sometimes the lesson of The Good Samaritan is not only found in a story.
Sometimes it is found in a people.
[note: While I offer the Samaritans as an excellent example of how we can live our lives uncompromisingly among the factions of the world, Christians are called to Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and evangelize the world. The reason the Samaritans are so few is because they limit their community to those who share their bloodlines. Jesus calls for something more as I imagine the Samaritans who first heard and accepted the Gospel from the woman at the well came to understand.]
- See related article: At the Well in a Valley of Conflict, by Brian Murray
Top image credit: Sunset landscape banner by Living Bulwark graphic designer. Background cropped pic from unsplash.com. Used with permission.
Brian Murray is a coordinator in the People of Hope, in Newark, New Jersey, USA.